SUNSET MALL SEARS STORE TO CLOSE! MY MEMORIES OF SEARS

From the editor: Among the many Sears closings nationwide:  Sears 4000, Sunset Mall, San Angelo TX.  No word yet on the future for Sears at Brownsville's Sunrise Mall.

My first bike, a J.C. Higgins, ordered
from the Sears-Roebuck catalog over
sixty years ago

"Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back" was the Sears-Roebuck guarantee I heard hundreds of times as a kid.

Twice a year a new Sears-Roebuck catalog arrived at our door, one for spring-summer, the next for fall-winter.  My grandfather, Adolph DeMan, actually nailed an older copy inside an old outhouse, near the woodshed, used in emergencies.

Boys like me couldn't help but notice a hundred pages of women in lingerie, but eventually we found the bikes, baseball mitts and overcoats we needed.  In Seattle, we ordered galoshes, a rubber overshoe that protected your dress shoes from rain.

But Sears had everything; guitars and amps, all kinds of tools, sporting goods, kitchenware, shower curtains and bridal dresses.

Even before we learned the phase "truth in advertising," Sears modestly rated their goods as good, better and best, ascending in price accordingly.  If an item was nearly indestructible, likely the best of its kind on the market, it received Ted Williams Approval, preceded by a check mark. 

Ted Williams, the last ball player to bat .400, the American League's answer to Stan Musial, was a gruff, no-nonsense guy, who, legend has it, tested every sporting goods item he endorsed, before putting his name to it.

In 1976, Nena and I bought a home on Scenic Hill in North Little Rock, overlooking the Arkansas River.  When Nena started using an electric sander to remove years of paint, a neighbor explained that she was "wasting her time."

"Most of us go with aluminum siding here as that paint will peal in a year," the helpful neighbor offered.

Nena continued for several days, sanding down to bare wood, then adding two coats of Sears Best primer and two more coats of paint.  Halfway through the sanding, though, the sander gave out, with Nena taking it back to the store for a new one.  

Lol!  That was the year we joined the Craftsman Club, buying all our tools, hoses, rakes, lawnmowers and hoses from one source, Sears.

OK.  Sears just closed a bunch of stores nationwide.  Some, like the one in Sunrise Mall, remain open for the time being.  The company needs some outlets for their remaining inventory.

Funny thing is, Amazon.com and others are simply internet versions of the old Sears-Roebuck catalog, a concept the company revolutionized, then rejected for "modernization."